Beware this new inworld scam

[thamestvguy]

TBC: Long-time resident, using a new alt for this post.

A scam is going around in SL where people enter clothes stores and greet shoppers, pretending to be an employee of the store.

They make conversation and then reveal they have discretionary powers to enable a discount on the item - but that they can't do it at that particular vendor. They ask the customer to pay them directly. Once paid, they TP out and hit a new store.

A builders' group I am in also reports that this happened at a motorbike store. 

Please spread and share these tips:

- If you own a store, consider logging into the store more often

- Put up signs explaining that the scam is going on

- Ban anyone who tends to spend a lot of time in your store but never buys anything.

[Lindal Kidd]

Hi, @thamestvguy!

This is not a new scam, but a very old one.  Nevertheless, a few people give it a try every now and then, and a few people fall for the con. 

Thanks for reminding us.

[Tari Landar]

12 minutes ago, thamestvguy said:

- Ban anyone who tends to spend a lot of time in your store but never buys anything.

This is stupidly idiotic and will lose you far more customers than it will stop scammers

Any business that does this ***** to people, can kiss my lily white lil pixel arse..and I'll be sure to let folks know they're doing it too.

While there is merit in warning customers and being vigilant, this kind of advice will have the opposite effect of what you want, and it will, I guarantee, piss a lot of people off. Especially as we see more and more logins, which means more and more lag at some places, more and more people standing still or being unable to make purchases at more busy locations...more and more everything

I loathe shopping with every fiber of my being, but sometimes when I go, I stand in one place and cam around. I help others find things they're looking for all the time, I rarely every buy anything myself in clothing stores (because I only change every couple of years). So I'm likely to stand still in someone's shop for a long time if I'm gathering info for SOMEONE ELSE. Ban me...sucks to be you, you can bet your butt I'm telling everyone I know not to shop with you....and I know lots and lots of people who will sympathize with being banned for simply being present too long (seriously...wtf....where is that logical?...). It doesn't actually stop scammers to do that, btw, some of those doing it will simply buy something form your store...there, now you won't even suspect them, lmao.  The stores I do shop at, I always stand around for a while, getting a good feel for the places, checking out their wares, often times revisiting several places before I decide on an actual purchase...because if I intend to purchase, odds are good it's going to be a big purchase. Don't treat me like a criminal if I'm not one..wanna know why I'm just standing around, how about you ask....

 

It's not a new scam, it's as old as sl is, not running any more rampant now than it ever has (it comes and goes in waves), just some of the more vocal folks have been hit by it in recent years, whereas before store owners simply enacted their own policies for dealing with it and kept the rabble rabble to a minimum about it (ie, didn't assume anyone standing in their store for a bit but not buying was up to nasty things..) That's how it's always been curbed when it rears its ugly head..not by throwing down the ban hammer based on stupid assumptions.

 

 

[Marianne Little]

The popular stores I go to, send an automatic message about this scam every time someone enter the store. And they have done this for years. But with many more new people trying SL, it is people who have no idea how it works and are easy tricked.

 

[Aeromia]

1 hour ago, thamestvguy said:

- Ban anyone who tends to spend a lot of time in your store but never buys anything.

 

-Any- store that does this would quickly lose business. There are a lot of people out there on rural connections, slow/high ping connections and it can take a long time and multiple logins to load the entire store (And all their decorations!) on a good day. I have been on a rural DSL connection (Try less than 2MB DL on for size) for the last two years and lemme tell you, how frustrating it is to have to stand there, waiting for stuff to load and then get griped at by a fellow customer because you've been standing there too long.

That particular scenario has never happened to me personally, but I see it all the time in groups, impatient people complaining about people 'standing around, afk' while shopping in a large/busy store or events and how they should be tossed out after 10, 15, 20 minutes. An individual has no idea if another is cam shopping or anxiously waiting for things to load and it's nigh indistinguishable from being 'afk'. It's part of the reason I wait until any and all events have cleared out of their busy times (usually a week or more) because it's just that much more difficult to load a region with that many people (even with show friends only, because each connection) or even to fight the mass of people trying to TP in. It just isn't fun.

Any store that banned people based on window shopping/their opinion of 'spending too much time (wat?)' at said store would lose my business, my partner's business and potential business of friends, because why should I waste 30+ minutes of my time trying to get their decorated store to load when they obviously don't value my linden.

There really needs to be a whole lot less impatient people in the world.

[Beth Macbain]

4 minutes ago, Aeromia said:

There really needs to be a whole lot less impatient people trying to scam other people in the world.

FTFY.

[Aeromia]

2 minutes ago, Beth Macbain said:

FTFY.

Yes, there does need to be a whole lot less people scamming others, but that isn't what I focused on in that particular bit.

Thank you for attempting to 'fix' what I said, you didn't need to.

[Bree Giffen]

Stores already send out warnings about this scam when you go into the store. I think that’s enough of a warning to stop scammers.

[Rhonda Huntress]

1 hour ago, thamestvguy said:

They ask the customer to pay them directly.

Always a scam.

[Skell Dagger]

It's a very common scam, and it happens a lot at stores selling mesh heads and bodies. At Catwa we've seen a slightly different version of it, where the unsuspecting shopper is told that there is an unmissable "today only!" discount offer, but it's not at the mainstore. They then get teleported to the special "offer location" - which is a quickly-rezzed store set up in a sandbox. Once there, they pay the scam vendor, the expected mesh head never arrives in their inventory, and the store disappears from around them. Our support group then gets the dubious pleasure of the customer's ire.

ETA: Additionally, I frequently have to ask club hosts to detach their auto-greeters when they're at the store. These tend to be set up to say "Hi, [name], welcome to [location]!" so it looks as if these people are official store greeters, when they are not.

Edited April 21, 2020 by Skell Dagger

[Seicher Rae]

7 hours ago, thamestvguy said:

TBC: Long-time resident, using a new alt for this post.

A scam is going around in SL where people enter clothes stores and greet shoppers, pretending to be an employee of the store.

They make conversation and then reveal they have discretionary powers to enable a discount on the item - but that they can't do it at that particular vendor. They ask the customer to pay them directly. Once paid, they TP out and hit a new store.

A builders' group I am in also reports that this happened at a motorbike store. 

Please spread and share these tips:

- If you own a store, consider logging into the store more often

- Put up signs explaining that the scam is going on

- Ban anyone who tends to spend a lot of time in your store but never buys anything.

What I don't get is why you had to create an alt to make this post! And then tell us about it.

 

Edited April 22, 2020 by Seicher Rae

[ItHadToComeToThis]

On 4/21/2020 at 6:30 PM, thamestvguy said:

TBC: Long-time resident, using a new alt for this post.

A scam is going around in SL where people enter clothes stores and greet shoppers, pretending to be an employee of the store.

They make conversation and then reveal they have discretionary powers to enable a discount on the item - but that they can't do it at that particular vendor. They ask the customer to pay them directly. Once paid, they TP out and hit a new store.

A builders' group I am in also reports that this happened at a motorbike store. 

Please spread and share these tips:

- If you own a store, consider logging into the store more often

- Put up signs explaining that the scam is going on

- Ban anyone who tends to spend a lot of time in your store but never buys anything.

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You should definitely not take this post seriously

[Sassy Kenin]

On 4/21/2020 at 12:30 PM, thamestvguy said:

A scam is going around in SL

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Edited April 22, 2020 by Sassy Kenin

[Lindal Kidd]

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[LittleMe Jewell]

On 4/21/2020 at 11:30 AM, thamestvguy said:

TBC: Long-time resident, using a new alt for this post.

A scam is going around in SL where people enter clothes stores and greet shoppers, pretending to be an employee of the store.

They make conversation and then reveal they have discretionary powers to enable a discount on the item - but that they can't do it at that particular vendor. They ask the customer to pay them directly. Once paid, they TP out and hit a new store.

 

I've seen stores give out warnings about this for most of the years that I have been in SL - and I've been here since 2007.  So how is that that a "Long-time resident" has never even heard of this before?

Given that, it was probably for the best that you created an alt for this.

Edited April 23, 2020 by LittleMe Jewell

[Selene Gregoire]

A complete stranger approaches you, offers you a deal and you don't bother to check the store group to see if they are an employee before throwing money at them or being TPed to who knows where...

color me not surprised.